Tuesday, 22nd September ’20
Good morning, welcome to TMT Tuesday. IPL has brought a billion smiles to our nation. With cricket being the most watched sport in India, the daily 20-20 matches have given our country a reason to be hopeful and a reminder of the good times. To be noted is that the person who started it all, Lalit Modi is banned for life from any cricket association. A clear example of it takes a second to lose the reputation build over a lifetime.
Here is a quote from George Bernard Shaw to start the day.
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
MARKETS
Markets: Markets fell for a third consecutive day on Monday and continues to give a bearish signal. A continuation of the downmove could lead to further sell-off and hence traders should stay light on positions and avoid overnight positions. This sell off is pre-dominantly due to the rise in Corona virus cases in India and Europe. The BSE Sensex fell 811.68 points while the Nifty50 plunged 254.50 points. The correction was seen across sectors with Nifty Bank, Auto, FMCG, Metal and Pharma leading the charge which saw 3-5 percent fall.
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
- Microsoft has agreed to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Doom and Fallout studio Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion in cash. The acquisition follows earlier Bethesda games coming to Xbox Game Pass on console and PC and heats up the Xbox vs PlayStation saga.
- Former Cognizant CEO Francisco D’Souza has started a new innings. Together with others, D’Souza is setting up a $1 billion US-based private equity fund called Recognize. He is said to have already raised a couple of hundred million dollars. The rest of the fund-raising is underway.
- Grail, which began in 2016 as a spinoff from genetic sequencing giant Illumina and co-founded by longtime Google executive Jeff Huber is now being repurchased back in an $8 billion acquisition announced by Illumina this morning. Illumina already owns 14.5%
WHAT ELSE IS COOKING
- PM Modi launches optical fibre for internet services in Bihar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched optical fibre cable link in poll-bound Bihar to connect all 45,945 villages in the eastern state through internet and provide digital services such as e-education, e-agriculture, tele-medicine and tele-law. The project ‘Ghar Tak Fibre’ will be executed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, and Common Service Centres (CSC).
- Tesla in talks with Karnataka govt to set up R&D centre in Bengaluru: Electric car maker Tesla Inc is in discussions with the industries department of Karnataka government to set up a centre in Bengaluru to leverage the large research and development ecosystem in India’s technology capital. The development would bring in one of the biggest electric car makers in the world to Karnataka and would bump up the state’s image with a high-profile and news making investor marking its presence in a city that is already known as a R&D hub for sectors such as aviation, biotechnology, and information technology.
- Petronas looks to acquire a minority stake in Tata Power Renewable Energy: Malaysia’s state-run oil and gas company, Petroliam Nasional Bhd or Petronas is looking to acquire around 10% stake in Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL), said four people aware of the development. This marquee minority stake sale in TPREL is in addition to Petronas’ interest in investing in Tata Power’ renewable energy infrastructure investment trust (InvIT).
BUSINESS LOUNGE
Koskii
In 1991, at the age of 16, Umar began his entrepreneurial journey. He continued studying but didn’t attend school regularly and just went to give exams. As he was the only person responsible for the operations of the business, he had to travel across the country to collect saree stocks.
When they rented their saree shop, they retained its old name ‘Mina Bazaar’. The journey started really slow but in a few months, they started making Rs 1,000 daily, which helped their family make ends meet. While Mina Bazaar was running steadily, the income was not high enough to expand the business. To take the business forward, Umar thought of pursuing an MBA. However, as Kolar was a small town, it didn’t have a college for MBA and the nearest option was Bengaluru. But, as he couldn’t leave the shop, he dropped the idea and settled for master’s in commerce instead. His post graduation stunned Umar’s family. He was the topper in institute in Kolar, which made his father realise that Umar would have done a lot better studying further.
In 2009, while he was in the US, he received news of a shopkeeper selling his store in Shivaji Nagar, Bengaluru. He says that the entrepreneur inside him whispered – “Let’s buy this and expand Mina Bazaar to the big city.” Umar had Rs 14 lakh in savings and he discussed the idea with his family. But, to his disappointment, they didn’t approve of his plan and told him to focus on his job. Not losing hope, he discussed it with his brother and the two decided to go ahead.
And so, began the story of expansion. In 2013, Umar opened another store in Chickpet, which is famous now as a one-stop-shop for occasion wear, especially among old Bangaloreans. Koskii now showcases lehengas (which is its main range), sarees, dresses, gowns, fabrics, and more. After a steady growth over eight years, in 2019 the company raked in Rs 35 crore revenue and plans to mark Rs 50 crore this financial year, all this while being consistently profitable.
All’s well that ends well!
TMT VARSITY
Left-Brain Marketing
Technology has expanded opportunities for marketers over the last few decades. With the advent of data management, analytics, hosted software, and customer relationship management (CRM) applications, the creation—and success—of a marketing campaign is no longer determined by sometimes nebulous “customer awareness.”
Furthermore, that degree of awareness no longer needs to be ascertained through direct contact. Information that was once closely guarded by companies is now widely available on the web. In fact, Cisco Systems has projected that 667 exabytes of information will have been transmitted over the Internet in the year 2013—more than 2.5 million times the information stored in the Library of Congress. Because of the plethora of technological advances, nearly everything can now be measured, and measured quickly.
Left-brain marketing is as much an internal strategy as an outward form of advertising. By definition, left-brained people are logical, organized, and practical—they “live in the real world.” Likewise, left-brained marketing values analytics over creativity, reflected in both internal procedure and external advertising.
American Honda, for example, has built its reputation on its dependability rather than the “excitement of driving,” and has built its marketing strategy around that premise—to the point of featuring a series of mini-documentaries on its website. In 2009, Honda released its “Dream the Impossible” series, a collection of five-to-eight-minute web vignettes highlighting each of the company’s core philosophies. For the past several years, Honda has worked with marketing-services firm Targetbase, which uses a highly adaptive campaign management tool called Event Transition Network as well as other data-management tools. Customers are scored on their responses to dealers as well as their responses to mail, email, and Web campaigns; in turn, that information was used to target offers through customers’ other “trigger” companies. As a result, while Detroit automakers were suffering double-digit losses during the Great Recession, America Honda was actually able to increase its sales slightly.
Written by Kumar Sourav Mohanty, Akansh Bhatt, and Shashank Dobhal
Become Smarter in Just 5 minutes
Get a daily mail that makes reading the news enjoyable. Stay informed and entertained for free. (After Sign Up, you’ll receive a welcome mail within 5 minutes. If you don’t get it, check your promotions tab and move it to primary.)
FOLLOW US HERE